CPU upgrade from PD 945 to ...

[Basher11]

I have an old rig, the motherboard is Asrock 775i65G pretty solid, has been using it for over a year now. CPU is Pentium D 945, thinking about upgrading it a Core 2 Duo as the prices are dropping down to a very good dela for my budget. I have checked the manual of the motherboard whihc says Core 2 Duo of FSB 1066 are supported as well as Quad Core Kentsfield.

But there is a specifications explicitly stated in the manul saying that the PCB version of the board must be R2.0 or above and the BIOS must be P2.80 or above.

Now I can easily check the BIOS when I boot up the machine and look at the POST, it reads P3.20 for the BIOS. Could anyone help to tell me how do I check the PCB version? I suppose I dont need to open up the chasis and use a torch to check some microscopically small printings which tells me what the PCB version is do I?

Thanks!

 

[toosober]

You will have to open the chassis to swap the cpu, might as well open it and look now.

 

[Basher11]

So where I might find the PCB version markings on the motherboard?

 

[4745454b]

Around. Check by the slots. (PCIe, PCI, etc.) Before you crack the case, have you tried running CPUz? It does have a motherboard tab...

 

[bobwya]

If you can't find the BIOS code easily just drop a line to Asrock support. You might also want to check with them what Conroe CPUs are actually supported... I see the "official" supported CPU list has processed beyond the P4 Smithfields.

I would agree with trying CPUz first to find the PCB version then I hunt around the PCB AGP/PCI slots.

Bob

 

[V3NOM]

it should be at the bottom right corner, below the BIOS chip and battery and SATA ports. look closely around...

 

[Basher11]

Thank you all very much for your pointer. I did run CPU-Z but didn't know it tells the PCB version.

 

[Basher11]

Hey folks, exciting news! I think the board supports Conroe. I couldn't find the PCB version from CPU-Z, but only the BIOS version. Also I could tell which number is indicating the PCB version but when I look around the board with a torch I found...

It's perhaps a good marketing / product information strategy for manufacturers is that most of the features that you find on the board's box are printed on the board itself, for example, near the DIMM slot big printings read "Dual Channel" is found. And near the IDE and Floopy Disk ports, it prints and reads "Presley Conroe".

I think it supports Conroe, so which 1066MHz Conroe is the best upgrade path from my Presley? Is Q6600 Conroe as well? Currently a big drop of C2D makes such upgrade a good price/performance. Play Battlefield and COD5 mostly, will I find noticeable difference if I upgrade my X1950Pro AGP to HD 3850 512MB AGP too?

 

[cjl]

Q6600 is Kentsfield, which just means that it is 2 Conroes in one package. It would be an excellent upgrade, and so would something like an E6600 or E6700. 1066FSB Conroes are hard to find now because they are so old though, so the Q6600 would definitely be the easiest (1333FSB Conroes can still be found much more easily, like the E6850).

 

[Basher11]

So I can still consider Kentsfield, are you sure becoz I don't want to get the wrong deal.

You are right, E6600 and E6700 were once so popular for their o/c capabiility so most likely they are all sold out by now it's a product of 2006 anyhow.

I still see some Q6600 around though. 1333FSB's won't do because according to the manual it says specifically 1066FSB only.

In the menaual it also says it supports Quad CPU, so I think maybe Kentsfield can do.

 

[V3NOM]

Conroe = Dual
Kentsfield = Quad

Q6600 is a Kentsfield. Although the motherboard says 1066mhz FSB, i'm pretty sure it would get far beyond that. i mean my crappy Via northbridge based system with a supposed "1066" FSB got to 1160... Intels should own.

seriously, P45's are rated for what 1333 or 1600? some P45's got 2400...

 

[bobwya]

Play Battlefield and COD5 mostly, will I find noticeable difference if I upgrade my X1950Pro AGP to HD 3850 512MB AGP too?

Quite a bit of performance improvement there. However bear in mind that you pay over the odds for an AGP version of the card and that the AGP bus will bottleneck a performance card like that. Again there comes a point when it is better to invest in a newer P35 / P45 board and go with a PCIe card (that point arrived a few years ago with the introduction of the Nvidia 8800 GTX BTW). I mean a PCIe 4850 is not much more than the AGP 3850 and spanks its butt (price differential in the UK anyway).

Bob

 

[Basher11]

I bought it! Installed it but weird thing happened. If anyone knows about this motherboard 775i65G might probably know. The boot up time is much longer than before. It doesnt bother me. But one of the 1G DDR400 RAM module got rotten. I could not boot up the machine with both 1GB DDR400 (SuperTalent brand BTW) in the slot. Could you possibly advise should I get a single stick of 2GB to replace one of the faulty 1GB stick?

Now that I have the Qud 6600 in place, why CPU_Z reports the FSB being 1042 rather than 1066? Mulitpler is locked at X9, can I overclock it? Bus Speed reads 260, is that okay?

Which program / game is CPU bound so that I can check out if it is faster than my previous Pentium D 945?

 

[bobwya]

Can you post a CPUz report here? Save the CPUz text report and post that the edited highlights in a message (easier) or screenshots.

Is that RAM being overclocked because the Q6600 expects DDR2 RAM and the motherboard only supports DDR? Possibly why it won't boot with 2 sticks. Its all a bit weird because I am not used to dealing with a board that supports DDR with C2D Intel processors??!!

I think the FSB should be 266 to get 1066 and 9x266=2.4Ghz. You want a RAM:FSB multiplier setting the BIOS that locks the RAM at a 200Mhz clock I guess (3:4)?? Then you might be able to boot up with both sticks in place.

Don't be a fool!! You haven't even got your system working properly and you're already talking about overclocking and benchmarking!! You need the 2Gb dual-channel RAM working before you even think about benchmarking.

Bob

 

[Basher11]

Currently I am getting a problem whenever I run Strike Fighter Project I not long after the game started, it rebooted itself!?

 

[bobwya]

OK thanks for that!!

So first off you want the RAM is stable at that lower frequency (walk before you can run and all that). Trying slacking off the RAM timings to 3,3,3,8 (the 200Mhz SPD timings) in the BIOS. If this works better (is more stable) try booting with that second stick of RAM in place.

That DDR RAM is running slightly below it's specified PC3200 speed and don't forget the Q6600 is designed for 1:1 operation with PC8000 DDR2 RAM!! So naturally it's going run a bit slow!!

Bob

 

[Basher11]

Bob,
Really appreciate. Do you find it amazing that this board with DDR runs the Q6600...still some abnormal thing like when I wake up this morning, it wouldn't boot for the first time. I had to power off the rig then power up the second time and it says previous boot unsuccessful need to go to SETUP to update BIOS or something like that. Then I rebooted it 4 to 5 times and it went okay.

I will try the timing, so CAS Latency 2.5 unchanged and the rest are 3,3,3,8 right? If 3-3-3-8 won't do do I go for slower like 4-4-4-8?

Also, I have checked the other stick alone. Plugged it into both slots and tried booting up the machine it never made it. Do you think it is faulty because it is identical to the other one for dual channel. The only difference of this one to the other is the manufactured week.

Should I consider buying only 1 stick of 2GB instead of running dual channel?

You mentioned that Q6600 is designed for 1:1 operation so there is no alternative to run it faster with what my setup here is that correct?

If I build out a new rig, and use this CPU, would it be faster than a E8600?

 

[WR]

It would be safer to change the CAS Latency to 3 as well, for 3-3-3-8 operation instead of 2.5-2-2-5. That's because Cas 2.5 is running beyond spec at 173 MHz; it's only validated up to 166 MHz according to the pre-programmed SPD.

You can also try swapping one stick for the other to see whether it's a motherboard issue of supporting dual channel, or a stick issue of not being stable.

As for the GPU, HD3850 should be considerably faster and smoother than x1950 Pro.

 

[Basher11]

I have a silly question really. Given this motherboard is not a "standard" motherboard designed for a Conroe or Kintsfield processor, even it is up and running now, are all 4 cores being used?

 

[Guest]

Morning chaps,

I too have an ASRock mother board. Its running a Pentium D 2.8 at the moment, purchased a E8400 but it doesnt POST. i get some info, like CPU speed and sometimes it will get past the mem test but never gets past SATA detection.

I think the problem is my memory, i have crucial value select (2x1Gb) but its the slower rated stuff, do i need 800mhz rated memory for it to work correctly?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

for some reason the forum wouldnt let me edit my post so i will at the extra here.

The motherboard is the 4core-1333-esata2 model

 

[V3NOM]

^make your own thread.

 

[bobwya]

Bob,

I will try the timing, so CAS Latency 2.5 unchanged and the rest are 3,3,3,8 right? If 3-3-3-8 won't do do I go for slower like 4-4-4-8?

You mentioned that Q6600 is designed for 1:1 operation so there is no alternative to run it faster with what my setup here is that correct?

No you are just going for 200Mhz operation at 3,3,3,8 (the SPD). You might have to up the volts on the RAM a tad to get this. You would use a multiplier of 4:3 (266Mhz FSB : 200Mhz RAM).

Any longer latency settings will just make the machine into a joke (4,4,4,8 is starting to get very slow @ PC3200 DDR). Your machine will run well when the code you are running is CPU bound - like x264 encoding. Unfortunately loading programs, booting, transferring files, etc. will be quite slow as the CPU will be memory starved.

Also, I have checked the other stick alone. Plugged it into both slots and tried booting up the machine it never made it. Do you think it is faulty because it is identical to the other one for dual channel. The only difference of this one to the other is the manufactured week.

Should I consider buying only 1 stick of 2GB instead of running dual channel?

If you are going to get some more RAM... Consider that this is again like buying the AGP 3850... You will paying over the odds for DDR RAM vs. much higher performance DDR2 RAM at the same price!! (Old tech. prices don't drop they go up as the parts stop being manufactured/ phased out.)

Ideally you would get 2 sticks of matched, very high performance 1Gb DDR RAM, e.g.:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146023

Don't spend too much on the RAM (shop around if you system works with the stick you already have). See what I mean about the costing vs. DDR2 RAM though!! 1Gb sticks never became mainstream in performance DDR RAM - that is going to cause you some problems.
Personally I would go for a new motherboard and decent DDR2 RAM. A decent motherboard and 2Gb DDR2 will save you some hassles in the long run. Like I said an AGP 3850 is about the same price as a PCIe 4850 which is much more powerful.

Cheap upgrade for your CPU as an example:
P31 MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128356
2Gb RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161229

If I build out a new rig, and use this CPU, would it be faster than a E8600?

Depends if you are using a single core / single threaded game, etc. then probably no. Only with a >2 way x264 encode or other multithreaded program would you see benefit from the Q6600 over the 8600. Don't forget thought that multitasking in Windows is dependent on having a processor core free/ lightly loaded - due to the poor process scheduling implementation (vs. more effective multitasking in GNU/Linux for example). The more cores the better in my book!!

Bob

 

[Basher11]

Bob,

Thanks for all the information. I have identified that one of the sticks is faulty. I bought another twin kit Cosair, CAS 2.5, with that black-colour jack cover. Now both ram modules worked as clockward.

However, this is strange, when I leave the machine powered down for a long while like several hours or overnight, it always fails on the first cold boot and I have to power down it then power up it again. Eventually subsequent reboot and cold boot all work fine.

Now I am running into a great trouble is that I reinstalled Windows XP. And it kept on giving me that blue dump screen saying that there are hardware problem. Before the reinstallation I was able to run the original windows installation when the CPU was still the Pentium D. What do you reckon?

 

[bobwya]

However, this is strange, when I leave the machine powered down for a long while like several hours or overnight, it always fails on the first cold boot and I have to power down it then power up it again. Eventually subsequent reboot and cold boot all work fine.

Hate to ask but do you have a decent powersupply in there? That could cause problems since the Q6600 changeover...
Whats the manufacturer and rating of the PSU?

Now I am running into a great trouble is that I reinstalled Windows XP. And it kept on giving me that blue dump screen saying that there are hardware problem. Before the reinstallation I was able to run the original windows installation when the CPU was still the Pentium D. What do you reckon?

When does Windows XP fail? During install or post-install? Is it a "virgin" CD you are using e.g. service pack 0 (SP0)? If so it might be worth slip-streaming SP2 with nLite and try that:
http://www.nliteos.com/
You can also slipstream in some drivers if you think that might help...

Bob